Until the 1980s labor productivity, real GDP per capita, private employment, and median family income all rose in tandem in the United States. Since then productivity and GDP have continued to climb, but median income started to trail, and around 2000 job growth slowed down, before rising again recently.

Big data is here to stay. The trick is finding ways to make it work for us. This 21-slide PowerPoint presentation provides a primer on big data—explaining how it differs from the analytics of the past—and describes the business opportunities and challenges it presents.